IMPERIAL GAZETTEER
OF INDIA
VOLUME XIV
Jalsalmer State.-The most western and the third in size of the
. States of Rajput‚na, lying between 26° 4′ and 28° 23′ N. and 69° 30′
and 72° 42′ …., with an area of z6,o62 square miles. It is bolanded
on the north by Bahawalptir; on the west by Sind; on the south and
east by jodhpur ; and on the north-east by Bikaner. The country
is almost entirely a sandy waste, forming part of
what is known as the Great Indian Desert. In the physical
neighbourhood of Jaisalmer town, and within a circuit aspects.
of about 40 miles, the soil is very stony, and numerous low rocky
ridges and hard undulating plains occur; but with this exception the
general aspect is that of an. interminable sea of sandhills of all shapes
and sizes, some rising to a height of rgo feet. The sandhills in the
west are covered with phog (Calligonum) bushes, and those in the
east with tufts of long grass. Shifting sands, locally termed dl rims,
are common. Nothing can well bear a more desolate appearance;
The villages are few and far between, sparsely populated; and consist,
as a rule of a few circular huts or wigwams collected round a well
of brackish water. A small stream called the Kŗkni rises near the
village of Kotri, r q miles south of the capital, and after flowing first
in a northerly and next in a westerly direction, forms a lake called
the Bhuj jhil; in years of heavy rainfall it deviates from its usual
course, and instead of turning to the west continues north for about
12 miles till checked by the recently constructed Da ya dam.
The surface of the country' is to a large extent covered by dunes
of blown sand of the transverse type: that is, with their longer axes
at right angles to the direction of the prevailing wind. Rocks of
Jurassic age, such as sandstones, shales, and limestones, crop out from
beneath the sand, and a large area of Nummulitic rock occurs to the
north-west of the capital.
The fauna is not much varied. Wild hog and leopards are occa-
sionally seen; antelopes are found in the east; while the Indian gazelle,
the bustard, and several species of sand-grouse are more or less common: